Lauren Murphy outpoints Roxanne Modafferi at UFC on ESPN 11
Roughly five months after her domination of Maycee Barber at UFC 246, Roxanne Modafferi (24-16) enters the octagon against fellow Ultimate Fighter season 26 competitor Lauren Murphy (12-4).
This UFC on ESPN 11 bout pairs two top 125-pounders each looking to climb their way towards a potential title shot.
Per UFC’s official rankings, Modafferi vs Murphy pits the number five ranked flyweight against the number six ranked flyweight, respectively. Though Joanne Calderwood has asserted herself as the next title challenger at 125 lbs, the winner of this fight shoots themselves into a position to get the next subsequent crack at gold.
“The Happy Warrior” Modafferi recently told MyMMANews, “I’ve been in this position before and it’s never good to look past my next fight. I’m just gonna focus on Lauren. She’s a really good opponent for me. She’s the only one I really want to fight right now. Like if I look at the top 10, a lot of people have missed weight. And I don’t want a rematch with Maia because she’s beaten me twice. I really just want to fight Lauren. And I have good ability to do it. I’m looking forward to showing my new and improved skill and strength on her.”
Murphy enters the fight on a two-fight win streak with a third round finish of Mara Romero Borella last August, followed by a split decision win over Andrea Lee in February. She also enters the fight as the slight betting favorite.
It was in the second frame of the fight that Modafferi was stunned with a shot, wobbled, and Murphy looked to take charge. Unfortunately she didn’t really capitalize on the situation and Modafferi recovered, and pressed Murphy up against the cage.
It was from there though that Murphy worked free, secured a takedown and would continue to push the pace and land the takedowns through the third round, setting her up for a unanimous decision victory and her third straight win in a row.
Look for Murphy to move up the UFC rankings come Tuesday morning.
